Ethics Board Holds Interviews In Private
by MARSHA SHULER - Advocate (excerpt)

The Louisiana Board of Ethics went behind closed doors Tuesday to interview candidates seeking to become the state’s top ethics enforcement official. The board voted 8-1, with two of its 11 members absent, to ban the public from the interviews.

The Ethics Board interviewed the 11 job candidates in separate 15-to-20 minute sessions. The board is expected to pick a new administrator in an open session today. Board member Scott Schneider, of Mandeville, objected to closing the interviews. “There’s an interest in what these candidates say,” he said.

The ethics administrator, a job paying up to $140,000 a year, is in charge of the staff for the Ethics Board, which polices the adherence of government officials to state laws such as nepotism, campaign finance and conflict of interest. Schneider said he did not understand the desire for the executive session sought by board Chairman Frank Simoneaux, of Baton Rouge.